fMRI explained…

Hah! now I’ve never really understood fMRI except as a vague generalisation that it ‘shows blood flow which correlates to neuronal activity’.

This post found on MindHacks (see my ‘blogroll’ for the link!) leads to several helpful readings about what fMRI actually measures, how it does so, and more importantly, says ‘our understanding of what brain scanning data tells us evolves over time. A study conducted ten years ago might mean something different now.’

People who are sceptical of science will possibly sieze on this as confirmation that ‘you can’t trust science, it could be wrong’ – but for me, it shows how open science is to revision in the light of new information.

Anyway, that was an aside: head on over to the post, and check out some of the supporting readings, I think it’s helpful, albeit needing a little time to digest!

2 comments

Hi Deb
now therein lies the rub! I was concerned when I read that there is a company providing fMRI services to corporate clients to establish the veracity of someone’s comments…that simply isn’t good.
I’m curious because it ends up posing us the question: are we ‘simply’ lots of molecules, or is there something different that develops when we think of the ‘whole’??